Having just paid out a ton of things - PII renewal, MLR regs, BKN membership, business cards - out of my own account, and had to make a list of these things so I can put them on my tax return, I've realised, once I have my own clients (rather than the work I do for accountants) that I really should have a business bank account, in my business name. I wondered if anyone could recommend the best bank - or is it down to individual needs and tastes?
From previous experience from past employers, Lloyds & Natwest seem the be the better ones for business accounts, but I've only really dealt with them & HSBC before. Are there other banks that are better? This could be a personal question or a business question really, I guess?
It's worth looking closely at what you need from your bank and what they'll charge you for it. Shop around as charges vary quite a bit, you may even manage to get free business banking forever, or at least a few years.
having a business bank account in your business name is a very good idea, not only for projecting a professional image, but also to keep your business affairs separate from your personal expenses which HMRC will prefer.
Many of the high street banks offer more or less the same perks with their business bank accounts nowadays, e.g. free banking for 18 months, free internet banking, etc... In the past I had good experience with Barclays and HSBC as I found their online banking facilities quite good, especially the HSBC's one.
Just my opinion though.
Fabs
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Just moved my main business account from Lloyds to Natwest after over thirty years with the same bank they didn't even want to talk to me in my branch (apparaently business customers need to phone a telephone support bank manager who tells you that they can't help you so go into the branch to talk to someone... who doesn't want to talk to you because you need to phone the telephone support... See where this is going!!!). Anyway, got so peeved off that I ended up wishing them a nice day then walking straight accross the road to Nat West.
I've had a hand in developing the business systems for most of the biggies and to be honest my favorite was RBS / Natwest which was why I walked straight past several of the others which had much nicer window displays to a bank that looks like it's dropped straight out of the 1950's... Which is exactly what I want my bank to be.
If I want to talk business I don't want to sit in some open plan area as seemingly designed by the same people who designed McDonalds.
I don't want music and video's playing whilst I queue.
And I certainly don't want a bank telling me that they're using my money to support the Olympics. If they can do that then they can afford to pay me more interest and dividends and scrap using shareholder and client monies to support things that are rightly for governments, not business to support.
Anyway, although I know Natwest from the operations side (which I was very impressed with) I'm still new to being a customer but have to say that three months in I'm still very happy that I've got a real old fashioned bank with old fashioned ideals and a bank manager that I can name and who knows me when I walk in the bank... 15 years ago Lloyds used to be like that. Hope that Natwest doesn't see the Lloyds route as progress but I fear that it may as banks all tend to follow each other like sheep on the grounds that don't get fired for following the competition but they may be fired for standing out from the crowd even where such is the right thing to do.
Oops, I appear to have gone off on one. Sorry. My vote is for NatWest / RBS.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks everyone for your input. At my old job, before I had kids, they banked with Lloyds and I have to say that particular branch were very good at customer service with businesses. When I tried to open a business account (I dabbled with selling cosmetics as a part time, extra curricular job) with a different branch though, I found them to be awful so ended up at HSBC. However whilst HSBC were great when I opened the account, I had no correspondence after that. I've had a personal bank account with Natwest for 25 years (OMG am I that old!!!) and have dealt with them on a business basis from several other job and found them to be pretty good, so think I will go with them. I know they are especially good if you already have an account with them, so hoping that I will have no trouble negotiating terms with them.
I've banked with NatWest personally for years and found them great but for a previous business I used them and found their business support useless.
Barclays are good and offer 1 year free business banking which I took when I started up but I have just switched over to Co-op as they are ethical and their banking is ALWAYS free. Their online system is great and even their little code machine gadget is better designed than most as it goes on a keyring and is very small. Can't fault them.
Banks aren't there to help you in any way, they provide a service and make money. As long as you remember that you'll do ok.
If you get a helpful bank or helpful manager it's more by luck than engineering. Most business accounts seem to be run through call centres now, and like any call centre some staff are good and others are at best useless and at worst totally incompetent.
Sorry, I had to call the bank this morning, then I saw the thread. Like Fabs I tend to do everything only, but sometimes you need to speak to someone, especially when they make a mistake.
-- Edited by kjmcculloch83 on Monday 21st of November 2011 02:36:04 PM
Steer well clear of Santander. From July to September this year their online statements for ex Alliance and Leicester customers went on the blink and only half the monthly transactions were shown. As my client only had an internet account Santander would not supply paper copies. Added to that my client wanted to open another account and was told by the call centre that they could not do this because they were an Alliance and Leicester customer. When the next partial bank statement was available on line they found that the call centre had changed the current account to the name they had asked for a new account - this resulted in online payments being made to them were bounced back only they didn't know which because they still only had half a statement!!!! This led to cash flow problems. It is now nearly the end of November and we are still trying to find which payments are in the ether - we know what we haven't received and some are from local authorities so it's a nightmare to track them down. They made a written complaint and Santander have given them a small amount of compensation.
